Office

3rd Floor, Colman House,
King Street, Maidstone
Kent, ME14 1DN

Contact

Sales: 01622 600 921
Collections: 01622 528 543

Opening Hours

Monday – Friday: 8am – 8pm

Frequently Asked Questions

We collect business and consumer debts, home and overseas.

No. You need to visit https://www.gov.uk/register-creditor-bankruptcy to Register your claim alongside other Creditors.

Our partner solicitor practice provide legal advice and handle legal recovery on our behalf

If your business customer is still trading then they need to honour their contract with you; but if they have cannot pay and cease paying other creditors then it could lead to a winding-up order that puts them out of business. If your business, or consumer customer, has a short-term cash flow problem we will negotiate an instalment plan. We can still help.

No. We will collect from any business entity that has contracted with you for services or product, as well as collecting from your consumer customers.

Yes. Our partner solicitor’s practice Brachers act on our behalf.

Yes. We have an in-house tracing facility using all the credit reference agency available plus making desktop verification calls. This leads to a 99.4% returns accuracy.

No.

Yes. We act as the credit control department for a number of large companies and SMEs. Called Confidential Credit Control it means we call in the client name to deliver the lowest possible DSO and optimise cashflow.

You do not pay anything in advance. We charge on a contingency basis – charging commission on monies recovered. See Clause 5 of our standard Terms & conditions.

We will need (at least) a statement and ideally the invoices that make up the total debt. Any other communication and ‘proof-of-debt’ will help.

Online, email, fax and mail. If you have a number of debts to place you can attach a spreadsheet online and via email.

Yes. The Late Payment Act of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act of 1998 means we can add interest and our collection costs to your commercial debts. When we are successful you will get free-of-charge debt collection from us.

The government legislates for this through the Late Payment Act of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act of 1998. The Act means we will add interest equal to the sum of the Bank of England reference rate plus 8% and the rate of commission agreed with you to recover a debt. If it’s a consumer debt then we charge additional costs provided these form part of your terms and conditions.

As an STA client, you will have access to “Your Debts Online,” our online performance reporting facility, where you can see exactly where we are with each and every debt you refer to us for collection.

The biggest contributor to collections success is the age of the debt. Collection success reduces as the debt gets older. Conversely, collection success increases the younger the debt is.

In 50% of commercial cases we collect interest and collection costs thus covering the cost of collection for you.

STA has ISO9001 quality accreditation for all its services; member of the Credit Services Association; Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for accounts formed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (amended 2006); sole UK member of the European Collectors Association; Collector Accreditation Initiative from the Credit Services Association (CSA) resulting in STA achieving the CSA Corporate Accreditation; Framework Supplier status award from the London Universities Purchasing Consortium.

We pay cleared funds to clients every two weeks with all collected funds held in a non-interest-bearing client account.

If you are unable to pay you can contact the following non–profit making organisations for free confidential and impartial advice (please note that we are not affiliated with these organisations and cannot be held responsible for any advice you receive)

Citizens Advice Bureau

Stepchange

National Debtline

To allow you time to seek advice it is important that you contact us and we will arrange to place your account on hold for 60 days. You can contact us on 01622 528 543 or by emailing collections@staonline.com

We are committed to supply the highest possible standard of customer care; indeed, it is at the heart of our Treating Customers Fairly policy. The policy is structured to ensure we can meet your expectations and our stated schedules. Here is our complaints handling procedure:

How to complain

Should you need to ask or complain about any aspect of our service, please call us on +44 (0)1622 528543, email us on: compliance@staonline.com or write to: Complaints, STA International, 3rd Floor, Colman House, King Street, Maidstone ME14 1DN England.

Your rights

In the event that our final response does not satisfy you, you have the right to pursue the complaint further; with the Credit Services Association or, for debt regulated by the Consumer Credit Act, with the Financial Ombudsman Service. Here are their contact details for your convenience:

Credit Services Association, 2 Esh Plaza, Sir Bobby Robson Way, Great Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE13 9BA
Telephone: 0191 217 0775 Website: www.csa-uk.com (click on Codes & Standards where you will find their Complaints Form).
Email: info@csa-uk.com

Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR
Telephone: 020 7964 1000 Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk (click on How to Complain)
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Yes. We record all telephone calls for Quality and Training purposes.